There were four new locally acquired cases up to midnight and these were linked to current COVID-19 outbreaks and they were all in quarantine during their infectious period said the Victorian Department of Health this morning.

There was just one locally acquired case in the same period. The department said there were 124 active cases in the state. Yesterday, 16,591 people were vaccinated bringing the total number of vaccinations in the state to 1,681,084.

In Queensland, there were 16 new local cases and these were linked to the Indooroopilly cluster. The state health minister Yevette D’Ath said nine of the new cases were reported to be children. All the new cases were linked to the current outbreak. The total number of cases in the state is 47. The minister welcomed news that the federal government would allocate 150,000 doses of Astra Zeneca to the Queensland

The Deputy Premier of Queensland Steven Miles described as an “excellent result that 34,718 tests were conducted in the state yesterday.

There were no new figures available for New South Wales at the time of writing. The figure of 207 cases was for the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, 1 August. At that time, the state had 3,038 locally acquired cases and 53 from overseas. The lockdown in the state incorporates Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong until August 28.

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Meanwhile, the ABC reported that Qantas will stand down 2,500 frontline workers for an estimated two months from mid-August as a result of the extended COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney and in other states. The airline said it would pay the affected staff members for two weeks after which they would rely on government support payments.

The national airline is operating at below 40 percent domestically and this was the result of the Sydney lockdown and NSW’s closure of its borders.

Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas said in a statement that based on current case numbers, “it’s reasonable to assume that Sydney’s borders will be closed for at least another two months.”He said that he did not expect further job losses to take place.

“Qantas and Jetstar have gone from operating almost 100 per cent of their usual domestic flying in May to less than 40 per cent in July because of lockdowns in three states,” Mr Joyce said.

“Hopefully, once other states open back up to South Australia and Victoria in the next week or so, and the current outbreak in Brisbane is brought under control, our domestic flying will come back to around 50 to 60 per cent of normal levels.”